Russian Rights Activist Cleared of Defamation

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

Published: June 15, 2011

MOSCOW -- A Moscow court on Tuesday cleared a prominent human rights campaigner of defamation charges, ruling that he had committed no crime when he accused Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's tumultuous region of Chechnya, of complicity in the murder of his colleague.

It was a rare and widely unexpected defeat for Mr. Kadyrov, who had requested that the authorities file criminal charges against Oleg P. Orlov, the chairman of Memorial, a human rights group. The Chechen leader has long dodged accusations of involvement in the torture, kidnappings and murders that rights groups say have accompanied his Kremlin-backed efforts to bring order to Chechnya after years of open warfare.

From the beginning, Mr. Kadyrov's opponents considered the case against Mr. Orlov to be part of an effort to silence the din of criticism surrounding the Chechen leader. In a country where courts are often manipulated by the authorities for personal and political gain, few, particularly Mr. Orlov, thought he stood much chance of beating the charges.

''It is a miracle,'' Mr. Orlov said outside the courtroom after the verdict had been read. ''I considered this to be a political trial and obviously a lost cause.''

Few opponents of Mr. Kadyrov have gotten off so easily.

The case of Natalya K. Estemirova, Mr. Orlov's colleague at Memorial and an indefatigable critic of the Chechen leader, is more typical. Ms. Estemirova was kidnapped from her home in Chechnya's capital, Grozny, in July 2009 and later shot to death.

Hours later, Mr. Orlov called a news conference, telling reporters there that he was certain Mr. Kadyrov was in some way responsible for the murder. The Chechen leader had openly clashed on several occasions with Ms. Estemirova, a former teacher who documented abuses by the security services in Chechnya. He had once appeared to make a veiled threat against her young daughter.

Mr. Kadyrov has denied any involvement in the murder and has openly mocked Mr. Orlov's claims to the contrary.

''My hands are very white and clean,'' Mr. Kadyrov said in video testimony at Mr. Orlov's trial. ''I had a manicure the day before yesterday.''

The Orlov case was the subject of an article in The New York Times in December that focused on the authorities' frequent use of legal tactics, like defamation suits, to pressure critics. Mr. Kadyrov filed a similar civil suit against Mr. Orlov in 2009. Mr. Orlov lost, and both he and Memorial were fined more than $2,000.

In the latest trial, Mr. Kadyrov's lawyers had asked for a three-year prison sentence. But in her ruling on Tuesday, Judge Karina Morozova said Mr. Kadyrov had provided only ''presumptive'' evidence that Mr. Orlov had committed a crime. Under Russian law, she said, people cannot be held criminally responsible for statements they believed to be accurate, even if factually false.

Mr. Kadyrov's lawyer, Andrei A. Krasnenkov, said he would urge his client to appeal the verdict.

Meanwhile, investigators have offered little indication that they are any closer to discovering who ordered Ms. Estemirova's death. Officials claim that the triggerman was an Islamic extremist killed by the police in autumn 2009, though Mr. Orlov and others have dismissed that explanation.